This full-day AAA workshop (4-0325) at the Annual Meeting in Montreal on Friday, November 18, will thoroughly address both digital audio field recording options as well as best practices for digital preservation. AAA is pleased to sponsor this workshop by Andy Kolovos, the Vermont Folklife Center’s archivist and staff folklorist. He’s run this workshop at other venues and we’re pleased he’s able to share his knowledge and experience with anthropologists. Sign up for it today for only $10 when you register for the meeting or login and add it to your schedule if you are already registered for the meeting.

Here’s the full description of the workshop:

This day-long workshop provides both a general introduction to digital audio field recording options for ethnographers, and an overview of digital preservation best practices to assist researchers with the preservation of their digital audio recordings—in the field and into the future.

The first half of the workshop focuses on digital audio and field recording. It includes an overview of audio recording technology and the nature of digital audio, a discussion of microphones and microphone technique suited to the field recording situations ethnographers commonly encounter, and presents information on current audio recorders, their applications and cost.

The second half the workshop is dedicated to discussions of digital preservation best practices for the short, medium and long-term preservation of field-generated audio recordings. We discuss the computer¹s role in interfacing with digital field recording equipment, examine a variety of hardware and software options, discuss and emphasize the formulation and implementation of a future technology plan for ethnographic digital audio research collections.

Workshop participants are encouraged to bring their own recording equipment for discussion.